


Not so Innocent

by SansyFresh



Series: Fresh's Babble Collection [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Mention of Previous Depression, Minor Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-27 16:23:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7625533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SansyFresh/pseuds/SansyFresh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Papyrus and Sans have lived on the surface now for two years, and Papyrus is feeling the stress. But when he goes to Grillby's as he normally would, he forgets that his brother is not entirely aware of his coping mechanisms.</p><p> </p><p>Or, a what-if story involving Undertale Papyrus, where Papyrus has been acting innocent and childish the whole time in order to help Sans though his depression.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not so Innocent

**Author's Note:**

> This is UNDERTALE Papyrus and Undertale Sans. He is meant to have a different personality here than what one normally sees. Enjoy!

Papyrus walked calmly down the road,  on his way to the one place he knew he could unwind without his brother finding out. It had been three years since Monsters had made it to the surface, and Papyrus had had little time to settle down the way that worked. Not that Sans knew anything of his methods. Sticking his hands in the pockets of his brown leather jacket, Papyrus thought on how he never wore his battle body anymore. He would never get rid of it, his brother had put much love and effort into making it. But, Papyrus despised the fact that it enforced his innocent and childish appearance. He had played a role his entire life, in order to keep Sans safe and happy. But the act was starting to wear him down. Sighing in relief when he finally made it to his destination, Papyrus smiled brightly and pushed the door open to his favorite establishment.

“Hey Paps!”

“Evening, Papyrus!”

“How’s it going, Papy?”

Papyrus grinned and turned to greet each person that called out to him as he made his way to the bar, where Grillby was waiting for him.

“Usual, Paps?” The fiery bartender smiled. He knew Papyrus as well as he did the rest of his regulars, and when he was having a bad day. Papyrus chuckled and slapped down some gold.

“You got it, G.” Papyrus then turned in his stool to lean one arm on the bar, the other going into his pocket for a smoke. Putting it to his teeth, he turned to Grillby, who had returned with a bottle of bourbon and a shot glass. “Mind lighting me up?” Papyrus smirked as the fire elemental laughed, putting one finger against the end of his cigarette. It lit beautifully, and Papyrus took a deep inhale, letting it sit before it expelling it through his nasal aperture. Taking the bourbon and pouring himself a shot, he threw it back, smiling at the satisfying burn that filled his soul with warmth.

“You could just get a tab, you know.” Papyrus grimaced, looking at the bartender, who was looking down at the shot glass he was cleaning.

“You should know me by now, G. I don’t like owing people more than I have to.” Grillby nodded. He and Papyrus had had this specific conversation before, with Papyrus always rejecting the idea. So he dropped it, and let his young friend relax.

 

~.~

 

Papyrus had downed about half the bottle of bourbon, his soul drifting into a hazy, half asleep state. He wasn’t nearly drunk yet, the numbing alcohol simply taking the edge off his stress. He was in the middle of taking another shot when Grillby was suddenly in front of him, concern changing the color of the tips of his flames. Papyrus looked up confused, only then noticing that the bar had gone quiet.

“The dogs smell him coming, Paps.” Grillby and the rest of the bar regulars had a deal with Papyrus to keep their mouths shut about how he acted when not around his brother. Papyrus sighed and went to stand, when a single thought stopped him. He sat back down deliberately, finishing his shot before smiling up at Grillby, who looked confused.

“Let ‘im come then. I’m tired of pretending.” Grillby seemed to relax, nodding his agreement, before letting the others know what Papyrus had decided; the regulars all looked relieved. It was hard to keep it a secret when Papyrus was just as much a regular as Sans, if not more so. They had all gone back to what they were doing as Sans came through the front door, laughing at some pun he just thought of. Papyrus had his back turned to him, snorting as he heard when Sans spotted him. His brother had literally gasped. Papyrus would have thought it was funny if he didn’t get the tiniest bit peeved.

“Paps? Bro? What are you doing here?” Papyrus grumbled to himself before turning to the side, giving his brother a smile and taking a draw off his cigarette.

“Hello brother.” he greeted simply before taking another shot. Now Papyrus laughed loudly; the absolute shock on Sans face was priceless. “Came to get a drink. Same as everybody else.” Sans shook his head from is stupor, looking a bit angry.

“Grillby, why the hell’d you give him alcohol!” Now Papyrus was angry, on his feet and standing firm in front of Sans.

“Because I asked for it. And paid for it, unlike a certain brother I know.” Papyrus smirked at the flash of apprehension on his brother’s face, a wave of content rolling over him as he relaxed, finishing off his smoke before walking behind the bar counter.

“I think I’m going to make use of that spare bed of yours, G.” That caused an uproar from the table of dogs.

“What, you gonna fuck him again?” Doggo gawfed, the others laughing.

“Naw, we haven’t done that since…what was it G? Last night?” Grillby laughed loudly, before wiping a tear from his eye.

“I don’t now, Paps, it might have been this morning.” With that Papyrus shut the back door behind him, his laugh bellowing from behind the walls. The dogs went back to their poker game, still snickering, and Grillby back to cleaning his glasses.

Needless to say, Sans was in a bit of a shock. He had never heard anything so lewd come from his brother’s mouth, and when the words hit him, he turned angry. He stormed to the counter, determined to get answers. Grillby watched him approach calmly.

“We were joking Sans. Your brother and I are just friends.”

“Since when?!?” Sans yelled. Grillby chuckled a bit, before blocking the back door with magic when he saw Sans try to go to it.

“You aren’t to bother him right now, Sans.” Now Sans was furious.

“What the hell, Grillbz? I’m your best customer here, I’ve known you for years, and he’s my brother, you can’t…” Sans was interrupted by a very ticked off flame.

“Sans. Papyrus has been coming to my bar for years longer than you. He does not wish to speak with you right now, so you are not going to bother him.” Sans flinched back. For years? But that made no sense…Papyrus hated Grillby’s. Grillby simply stared at him pointedly. Sans sighed.

“Will you at least help me understand what the hell’s going on then?” Grillby laughed.

“That’s not my job. My job is to listen. You really want to understand? Go talk to his friends.” Grillby gave him a very fatherly, scolding look, before leaving to serve some humans who had just walked in. Sans thought for a minute about his oldest friend’s words, when it hit him. Somebody who knew Papyrus almost as well as he did.

He needed to talk to Undyne.

  
~.~

  
Undyne was a little surprised by the sudden visit, as she and Alphys had settled in for an anime night.

“Hey, Dyne. Mind if I talk to you about something?” Undyne eyed the unexpected visitor, a bit confused, before opening her door. Alphys was still watching the anime, only turning to glance at them as they walked into the kitchen, both of them sitting at the table.

“So what’s up, punk? Where’s Paps?” Undyne asked, a small smirk on her face. Sans looked down at the table for a second, trying to decide how to phrase what he wanted to ask.

“He’s uh…he’s at Grillby’s.” Sans said finally, looking at the table.

“He finally let the cat out of the bag, did he? I was wondering now that we were up here how long it was gonna take.” Undyne snickered, imagining what must haven happened at the bar for Sans to come to her. Sans stared at her in, not for the first time that evening, complete and utter shock. The look on his face must have been priceless because she laughed loudly, attracting Alphys’ attention away from whatever she was watching.

“How long have you known?” Sans asked. He felt numb. But he needed answers.

“Since the first night he came asking to be on the Royal Guard. He tried to pull the naive shit at first, but it was three in the morning, so I shut the door in his face. Next morning I get up and he’s still there, sitting on my front step, smoking." Undyne paused for a moment as she stood and made them both a cup of tea. Sans would probably need the slight distraction. "So I invited him inside. He explained that he needed the job so he could help out his older brother. Said he was sick and wasn’t in a good way.”

“Why didn’t you let him in the guard then?” Sans was almost appalled. Undyne squinted her eyes before she continued.

“I did. You wouldn’t have found out, he made it pretty clear his actual personality was to be kept under wraps. He was actually Head of the Guard of the Snowdin Division, in command of the Dog Guard. Was pretty much my second in command. Would have probably taken my place one day.” Sans could only stare at her. He couldn’t process any of this…it was like static in his head that he heard, but couldn’t understand.

“You should be proud of him. He was a hell of a guardsman. Trained most of the guards in both Snowdin and Waterfall.” Undyne said, her voice bordering on reproachful. Sans shook his head, putting it on the table.

“What’s the deal with Grillby’s.” he muttered. Undyne snorted.

“What, you thought he hated the “GREASY, DISGUSTING, DIRTINESS” of Grillby’s? Sans, Papyrus has been a regular at Grillby’s since before he met me. I’m pretty sure he said he was nervous you’d find out when you started going there, so he made a deal with everyone to keep their mouths shut. Looks like they did. Wish you had been there some of those nights. Papyrus could drink Doggo under the table and still have a mean poker face.” At the memories she chuckled to herself.

“P-papyrus was actually the one t-to help m-me design M-mettaton's later upgrades. He’s pretty g-good with robotics.” Alphys offered, sitting down at the table after getting herself a cup of tea. Sans lifted his head and stared at them like they had just explained the sky had been red this entire time and he was color blind.

“Any OTHER major secrets I should know about?” Sans snapped. Alphys looked taken aback, but Undyne just remained calm.

“Sans. Don’t be mad at your brother. He hated keeping that act up more than anything he ever did. But any time I told him to just quit, he’d always tell me the same thing. “I can’t, Undyne. It’d kill him. He needs something to hold onto, something to care about. If I don’t give him that, if I’m not his baby bro when he needs me to be…He’ll break.” He’s done all this simply because he was worried about you, scared for you." Undyne paused to let her words sink in, before continuing. "Your brother is one of the most selfless people I know, you being the first.” Undyne smiled genuinely. Sans stared at her in disbelief, then felt the pin prick of tears on his skull. Soon he was sobbing into their table, and they both got up and comforted him.

“Thank you...I think I need to go talk to him…” Sans whispered as soon as he had calmed enough to breathe evenly. Undyne showed him to the door, and Sans thanked her again for all the information. Taking a deep breath, he short-cutted to Grillby’s.

 

~.~

 

“Sans, I told you…” Sans walked up to the bartender, grateful it was nearly closing time and the bar was empty.

“I know, Grillbz. I came to apologize. I…I went and talked to Undyne. Believe me Grillbz, I didn’t mean to hurt him…” Grillby sighed, then went around the bar and hugged Sans tightly.

“I know, Sans. You didn’t understand, because you didn’t know. If you want, you can go back to him. I’m sure he’s still awake.” Sans nodded his gratitude before going through the back door, making his way down the short hallway that lead to the backrooms. Coming up on Grillby’s spare bedroom, Sans sighed and knocked on the door. After a muffled “Come in…” Sans pushed the door open.

“Hey bro.” Sans whispered. Papyrus looked up at him, his face still wet from crying.

“Hey. Sorry about that, earlier. I just couldn’t pretend anymore, you know? I mean, you seem better, and I needed a break from all the stress of moving up here and…” Papyrus sighed heavily as Sans wrapped his arms around him, sitting with him on the bed.

“It’s okay, bro. I’m sorry you had to keep that up as long as you did. If you want, we can talk about it later. How about we get some sleep first.” Sans and Papyrus smiled to each other gently before laying down, curling together. They both entered a dreamless, peaceful sleep for the first time either could remember in a long time. Grillby found the two cuddling and took a picture, tacking it to his business board. A reminder of the day Papyrus finally told his brother he wasn’t so innocent after all.


End file.
